


A Lioness and her Cubs

by historiareiss



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 03:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7741675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historiareiss/pseuds/historiareiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three daughters of House Lannister giving birth, a woman's greatest trial.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lioness and her Cubs

**_I'd three times sooner go to war than suffer childbirth once_." - Euripides, Medea"**

 

 **I.** _Genna Lannister, 268 AC, Casterly Rock_  
  
It had been her explicit command. She would not have it any other way.  
"I will only agree to give birth at Casterly Rock, you hear me, Emmon?" Her husband always lacked the courage to defy her anyway, and so did many a man, to be sure.  
Genna Lannister had been willful and obstinate from a very young age, after all.  
At the Rock she was served on bended knee as befits a daughter of House Lannister, and even more so a pregnant one.  
At Casterly Rock she had a train of maesters and midwives to attend her, whiles back in the Riverlands, the Freys would barely keep a woman watching over her as she slept.  
And, not of less importance, at the Rock she had her brothers to take care of her, and her darling cousin, Joanna.  
The woman, Tywin's wife, had given birth to two golden twins scarcely two years prior to Genna's own pregnancy. Childbirth hadn't been easy on her, and the Maester highly advised his lord and lady against conceiving again, for Joanna's own sake.

"How fares our lady Frey?" Joanna bobbed her head through the door just then, mocking her sister-in-law with the title Emmon Frey had given her upon marrying her. A lesser title, meant to sting the Lannister pride in her.  
Genna lied in the featherbed the servants had exceptionally prepared for her. She had always been inclined to plumpness but now, under the weight of her enormous belly, she felt bigger than ever. Joanna herself had never been so big, and yet she had carried two children in her womb at once.  
"Oh? I'm surprised Lady Lannister has made a little time to visit me, with two toddlers of her own to look after."  
Lady Joanna giggled. "Don't be silly, Genna. You knew I would come. How are you?"  
"Hungry, and pregnant. And impatient to get on with it. All this wait is making me restless." Genna confessed, snorting in annoyance.  
"So, nothing new, my sister. You have always been restless, and you have always had a queen's appetite to match." The Lady of Casterly Rock was blunt to a fault, but both Tywin and Genna had always liked that about their cousin after all.  
"Aye, aye, all that! Have you come to bring some comfort or just to pester me?" Genna's small petulant mouth struggled to pout, but laughter burst soon enough.  
"I do not think you need any comfort, my lady. You seem well enough to me. So I have come to share some kitchen gossip with my sister-in-law. You know Tywin has no taste for it, and he would hear none of it either. Sometimes he can be so tiresome-"

"What news from the outside world? I feel like I have been lying within these walls for a thousand years." Genna made herself sit up in the bed, better to hear whatever Joanna had come to relate.  
"Oh, I think you know what they all are saying already. I have come for a heads-up from you, nothing more." Joanna smirked, as Genna regarded her warily from the bed.  
"They can say what they want about my child, Joanna. Emmon will acknowledge him as his own, and if it all should go awry, he will always have my blood, Lannister blood."

"A bastard of the Rock. Enough to undo a marriage, mind you." Joanna Lannister's sharp tongue snapped like a leather whip. Genna loved her well, but she was quick to anger too, even more so in her state.  
"And if I say he is my husband's trueborn child, then nobody will dare to deny me." Genna felt as if she should have kept it at that, but something in Joanna's haughty tone had triggered and wounded her pride. "You, of all people, should know better than to rely on kitchen gossip. There was a tale of Jaime and Cersei being fathered by the King, rather than Tywin, if I recall correctly? It was only told in whispers but there's not a serving wench in all the Seven Kingdoms who's not heard of it. And yet here you are, still married to my brother, ruling over the Rock as its rightful lady."  
"Slanders. Those were but slanders fabricated by Tywin's enemies." The woman's beautiful cruel smile finally shattered to reveal the cold offense underneath.  
Genna reached for her sister-in-law's hand over the coverlets. Her own rage was finally quenched by Joanna's distress.  
"So is what you are hearing about me. We are women in a men's world, sister. We must protect each other against these most shameful falsehoods... _even when they happen to be true_."

 

 **II**. _Joanna Lannister, 273 AC, Casterly Rock_  
  
Tywin had rushed to the birthing room as soon as she'd sent for him. She hadn't wanted him to attend her in childbirth when Jaime and Cersei were born, nearly 8 years back, but now Joanna knew that she only stood one pale chance at survival, and her chance was Tywin himself, her rock and her strength.  
Conceiving again after the birthing of the twins had been reckless at best, and Tywin never fully agreed to it, not wanting to endanger his wife, but it had been Joanna's special wish, and he was never able to deny her anything anyway.  
So there she lied, pale and frail. She didn't look like the lioness she had once been at all. Tywin went down on his knees by the blood-stained bed, clutching Joanna's hand as if his own life depended on it.  
She could only vaguely make out what was happening around her, as her consciousness slowly began to slip away from her body. She heard the Maester's thick and gnarled voice, urging her to fight on and push, push, because her son still had to come into the world after all. And then she recognized Tywin's familiar warmth at her side, she thanked the gods a thousand times for him.

Her blank moss-green eyes, filled with tears, still searched for his, and when they met, the ghost of a smile flickered across her sweat-stained face.  
To her great wonder, tears filled his eyes too. Tywin seldom smiled, but his tears were an even rarer sight to behold.

"My lord, she might not survive this... The child himself is in great peril." The Maester's warning came as sudden and as ill-omened as a thunder in the middle of a summer day. Joanna heard him full well, even though she pretended she didn't. She merely needed Tywin to stay with her, to give her strength.

"The Others take the child. I have a heir already. If it should ever come down to that, save her instead." Tywin hissed at the man who was inspecting his wife, rage and grief breaking his iron voice.  
Joanna could not believe her ears and for a second she thought she had fallen asleep and was now dreaming, in the feverish raving that had taken hold of her. Everyone felt so distant now, even her husband, whom she had loved above anyone else.

A sharp pang of pain radiating from her battered groin brought her down to earth once again, and Joanna knew at once that her son was fighting to come into the world, even as she was leaving it. Tywin's tight grip hurt just as much as the rest. She began to scream then, when the pain from the lower half of her body became unbearable. Her screams tore through Tywin as well, and his warm tears stained her hand too now.  
  
"Take me. Take my life if need be." Tywin had never held faith in the gods, so Joanna wondered who he was talking to this time. She just knew his tears were scorching hot and burning her skin as they fell on her hand. The pain coming from her womb was almost endurable compared to the sorrow that the sight of her grieving husband caused.  
Only when she heard the child's first cry, she allowed herself to be less than strong. She yielded her grip on life and Tywin's hand altogether. She was tired of fighting, she craved nothing more than the sweet release of sleep... and for this, she hoped Tywin would forgive her someday.

 

 **III**. _Cersei Lannister, 286 AC, King's Landing_  
  
"Send for my brother, at once!" Queen Cersei roared, as they were taking her to the bed where she was to give birth to the King's firstborn son and heir. Little did they know, those fools, that the King's trueborn heir had perished in her womb several months back... This one she was carrying now, was Jaime's blood as much as hers. A Lannister in all but name.

"Ser Jaime shall be allowed to visit you once you give birth to the prince, Your Grace. Pray, lay back against the cushions and breathe now. Gods be good, it won't take long." Maester Pycelle sighed, old and tired as always.  
Naturally, the old maester was wrong. The labor went on and on, for hours on end, leaving both Cersei and the army of midwives around her incredibly exhausted. And Jaime still was nowhere to be seen, the Queen observed angrily.

As the seventh hour of labor since her waters broke waned, Cersei finally heard muffled protests coming from the door, and above those, her brother's arrogant laughter.  
"Jaime!" She cried out, much to Pycelle's disapproval. She didn't have to call twice, for in a heartbeat the door swung open and Jaime stood in front of the bed, the cloak of the Kingsguard swirling behind his back, white as snow.

"How is she?" He asked the Grand Maester, ignoring the old man's reproachful glare, since no man beside himself was allowed to attend the Queen in childbirth.  
"She fares well, methinks. She hasn't lost much blood thus far, but the child is biding his time, it would seem. It might take a while before Her Grace gives birth... maybe even a day."

Jaime's gaze dropped to his sister in the bed then. Even with her golden hair matted against her forehead, and her face twisted in pain, she was still the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms to him.  
"I am here now, sister. You have nothing to fear. You are a lioness." Jaime kissed her brow softly, as she reached for his hand and held it tightly in hers.  
"So was our mother. I do not want to die like she did, Jaime." Cersei muttered, fear sharpening her every word.

Jaime remembered so little of their late mother who had died birthing Tyrion when they could have been no more than eight, and their father barely mentioned her afterward anyway. But he knew he had to say something to comfort his sister. Ever since they were children, he had never seen her look half so frightened as she did now.  
"You won't. You will live, and we will have others. A thousand children who will rule in Robert's place one day."

Cersei smiled at those words, even though they could have costed them both their heads if anyone in the room heard them. Thankfully, everybody was far too busy with the Queen's labor to pay any attention to what her brother was whispering to her ear.

But Jaime was right, he had to be. Jaime would never lie to her. And so she fought, and she lived, and when they rested the newborn prince in her arms, a few hours later, Cersei's heart threatened to burst with joy in her chest. Ever so briefly, she found herself thinking that nothing half so beautiful could possibly be the fruit of sin.


End file.
